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Say there's a workplace that needs constant attention from 10 people at different posts/locations. The company hires 11 people so the extra 11th person can go around letting the others take lunch breaks or rest. What do you call this extra job/person or the corresponding verb (could be from any industry you are familiar with)? Thanks!

Vinski Ratalahti
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  • I've never heard of this being a job. It just seems like one of the roles of a foreman or supervisor. I can't imagine hiring someone just do to this one thing. – Barmar Jul 29 '23 at 21:07
  • @Barmar I've done this job. – Weather Vane Jul 29 '23 at 21:37
  • @Barmar, I don't think that let in the question means that the person issues permissions (that would indeed be something what a supervisor does), but rather that the person makes it possible for others to take their breaks by replacing each of them for the length of his/her break. If there are n people to be replaced and each person's break is 1/(n+1) of the workday, then this amount to a full time job. – jsw29 Jul 29 '23 at 21:44
  • @jsw29 That makes more sense. I thought they were telling people when it was their time for break. – Barmar Jul 30 '23 at 02:01
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    My brother worked for some time as a postman, where the work is organised into "rounds", and most "posties" work 5 out of 6 days (no Royal Mail delivery on Sunday in the UK yet! :) Where he worked, the posties were organised into groups of six - five of whom each did their own round 5 days out of 6, and on each one's day off, the "floating" sixth postie did their round. That sixth guy was called the *swing postie* by the rest of the "team" (in a carefully managed relationship where the "swing" postie was normally expected to hand over or share in any Christmas bonus given by customers). – FumbleFingers Jul 30 '23 at 11:39
  • @FumbleFingers "no Sunday delivery yet" - it's the other way round. There used to be Sunday deliveries, and tall deliveries per day, but now royal mail want to go down to 5/week. – Chris H Jul 30 '23 at 16:39
  • @ChrisH: "go down to 5/week"??? I think not! I did actually know that The Post Office / Royal Mail used to deliver on Sunday before WW1, but it's only after being prompted by your comment that I've just discovered they've been "trialing" Sunday deliveries since 2014. My brother retired a couple of years after that, but he certainly never mentioned the possibility of his workplace being in that trial. – FumbleFingers Jul 30 '23 at 17:00
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    @FumbleFingers they're trialing Sunday parcels when it suits them, but they want to give up the obligation to deliver universally on Saturdays (rejected for now). So we're both right, but in different contexts. – Chris H Jul 30 '23 at 17:10

2 Answers2

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It's like a relief position. I also did this job once, when working in a department store. I would work wherever someone was needed due to illness, rest breaks, customer surge etc. My job title was mobile.

The closest dictionary definition was the adjective being used as a noun:

mobile

able to move or be transported easily from one place to another, or be used for a different purpose

Weather Vane
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The word that is roughly suitable for what the OP has in mind is floater. See Zan MacArthur's answer to word for "splitting time between various tasks", RyeɃreḁd's answer to What is the word for a person who does different jobs?, and vickyace's answer to What is the word for "job-hopper" with a positive connotation?. (These answers are relevant here, but the OP's question is not a duplicate of the questions to which they were given as answers.)

The word may be the best for the purpose, but it is only roughly suitable for it, because its meaning is broader than what the OP has in mind here; it does not mean specifically that the person rotates through several positions in the course of each workday in order to make it possible for other worker's to take their breaks.

jsw29
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